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Sunday, June 22, 2014

52 Ancestors: #12 John Emerson Goodloe

Last summer I made my third visit to Grapevine Cemetery in Hopkins County, Kentucky. It's a large cemetery, and more than 100 people in my database are buried there, all connected to my paternal grandmother through the Goodloe family. John Emerson "Jack" Goodloe was her great-grandfather. Jack's father, Henry donated the land for the original Grapevine Church, and one of his grandchildren is said to have been the first person buried in the cemetery, but that is a different story.

On the previous two visits, I located my grandmother's parents, Thomas Leander "Lee" & Samantha Petty Hankins, Lee's mother, Isabella Jane Goodloe Hankins Yates Devault, and Isabella Jane's paternal grandparents, Henry Lewis and Elizabeth Berry Goodloe. But I did not find her father, Jack Goodloe. The third time I found him.

Jack was born in Hopkins County on 25 Mar 1811. His parents arrived in Hopkins County from central Kentucky sometime between 1801, when they were married in Clark County, and 1810. Jack was the fifth of eight children, three sons and five daughters, born to Henry and Elizabeth.

Jack married Eliza Ann Dobyns, daughter of Edward Dobyns and Sarah Mott, on 5 Oct 1836 in Hopkins County. They had four children: Isabella Jane, Elizabeth, Mary Waller and Thomas Henry. Eliza died between 13 Dec 1846, when Tom was born, and 2 Jan 1849, when Jack re-married.

Elizabeth Pettus was Jack's second wife. (That is her surname on their marriage record but not necessarily her maiden name.) They had two children: Emsley and Virginia.

In A Stroll Through Grapevine Cemetery, an article possibly published in the newspaper when it was written in 1909, Rev. W. H. Moore described Jack.

"Uncle Jack, with the disposition of gentleness, full of kindness, all the children of the community loved him. A man of very deep piety always ready to reprove and admonish in a kind way that made me feel that it was done by a friend for good, everybody was his friend."

It should be noted that Moore was Jack's son-in-law, husband of his youngest daughter, Virginia.

Jack died on 17 Apr 1899 in Hopkins County. This brief obituary was published in both the Madisonville Hustler and the Earlington Bee a few days later.

"Uncle Jack Goodloe Dead
Uncle Jack Goodloe, who lived near Grapevine, died Monday, and was buried at Grapevine Tuesday afternoon. Mr. Goodloe was one of the old citizens of the county and is well known by all our older citizens. For several years past he has been an invalid. He was a brother of Uncle Kemp Goodloe and Uncle Henry Goodloe. He was a member of Grapevine church for a long period."